Is This the Path of Love?
What if we started with a different metaphor for time, a metaphor steeped in the character and values of Sabbath instead of the marketplace? What if, instead of an economic metaphor that sped our life up, we embraced a relational one that slowed us down and helped us be more present? What if time is love?
A time-is-love approach is slow instead of fast, at ease instead of hurried, abundant instead of scarce, kind instead of cruel. “Time is love” is invitational and personal, it is inherently abundant. Love has all the time in the world.
Sabbath and Childlikeness
We ask kids what they want to be when they grow up. Why don’t we ask each other how we plan to become more like children as we age? Maybe a better question would be: “How do you plan to be a kidult today?”
The capacity of children to live in the present moment is an invitation to us adults who have forgotten how to live our lives fully awake to the sheer miracle of existence, and instead live our lives under the burdensome weight of regrets, responsibilities, obligations, worries, busyness, and bills.
Sabbath and Juneteenth
In 2021, President Biden declared Juneteenth a national holiday. Juneteenth marks the day (June 19th, 1865) on which the final slaves, living in Galveston, TX, learned that the Civil War had ended and heard the Emancipation Proclamation for the first time—two and a half years after President Lincoln had delivered it. Like the Sabbath, Juneteenth is also a seed of shalom, planted but not fully grown.
Sabbath is a Raqi’a in Time
On the second day of creation in Genesis 1, God spoke into the chaotic waters and created a raqi’a. Traditionally translated as “firmament” or “dome,” the raqi’a is essentially a boundary holding the waters at bay. With the raqi’a God created a protected area—a clearing—in the center of the chaos, which created the conditions within which life could flourish.
The Sabbath is a raqi’a in time.